Monday, 11 February 2013

THQ Gone!

THQ Filed For Bankruptcy

Its hard to explain just how crappy this made me feel. It feels like THQ have been around for aaaages. They've made some awesome games over the years and its really sad to see them go, hopefully it isn't a sign of more bad things to come but it wouldn't surprise me if it is.

Although THQ has gone, it put all its companies and IPs up for sale in an auction, with bidders including companies like Ubisoft, Crytek and Sega.

Most of the THQ studios found a buyer;

Relic Entertainment (Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War) went to Sega for $26.6 million.

Evolve, the new property from Turtle Rock Studios (co-creators of Left 4 Dead) was purchased by Take-Two Interactive, for a long time THQ’s closest competitor in the second tier of US publishers, for $10.894 million.

The Homefront IP was purchased by Crytek, whose UK division had ben contracted to produce Homefront 2. The $544,218 fee seems low for a banner IP, but Homefront‘s under performance in the market would have affected its price.

Publishing rights for South Park: The Stick of Truth, which is preparing for launch on March 5, was purchased by Ubisoft for $3,265,306

THQ Montreal – the first organically-grown (rather than acquired) THQ studio in North America, and its largest, was also purchased by Ubisoft, which already has a significant presence in Montreal. With no titles in the works, this can be seen as an opportunity to acquire a lot of talent relatively cheaply at $2.5 million.

I think the fact that THQ has had to close down is tragic, for the games market and the industry that I'm hoping to get into one day. Loads of talented people have been laid off and even the studios lucky enough to be bought will still have to sack people.

What gets me the most out of the whole thing though is Vigil wasn't bought! As one of THQs studios it went up for auction and no one bought it, not even that no one even bid. I'm a massive fan of the Dark Siders series and my favourite artist Joe Mad was co-founder of the company, I just cant believe no one bought the company. Dark Siders was the first game the studio ever made and it did well, their second game Dark Siders 2 was voted the most bought game in the US just last August, and now the company can't even get a bid.

This means Vigil has now closed down and is no more. For a few days/weeks this news really depressed me, it just isn't a bad sign of the way the industry is going. Most people start courses like this with an 'end goal' or 'dream job' and work towards it. Working at Vigil was mine and now its gone, which has left me with a bit of an empty spot where my goals should be and I'm not quite sure what to do now, apart from carry on and hope something new comes up that interests me.